Cultures

Good behavior and manners tend to be a common quality and value in every country, but One must know that there are customs, traditions and conducts that make cultures and countriesdifferent from each other.

Most of the time, realizing this, can lead you to a fluent, respectful and highly accurate agreement abroad. So before getting to sit in the same table with aperson who has been raised in another culture, take your time acknowledge the main aspects of his\her common behavior to make him/her feel comfortable and respected.

In Europe, andmostly the developed one, people tend to be serious and sobber, they don't like to make quick decisions, but they love discrete and high quality elements or gifts. They are formal, educatedand they like to be on time.

Americans are known as direct people. They are not ceremonial, they don't bring a big relevance to good manners. Instead they are methodical, practicaland quick thinkers. They find that the most important thing when negotiating is the phrase "business are business".

Asian people is very ceremonial and they lack people skills. Theyavoid physical contact, thats why they don't usually shake hands when saying "hello". They don't like to invite someone or get invited into someone else's home and specially they don'tlike showing out their feelings in public. They like to talk about business with a large group of company members. Avoid jokes during the meeting and if you have to, point with your openhand instead of using ur finger.

So a good idea before heading to another international business trip, is to gather information from the embassy, searching the web or asking people thatalready have been there. If it is too late and you find yourself in the destination country, you can get some help from the hotel or a restaurant manager, even from a beautiful waitress.